I heard Microsoft had just finished tweaking the console before E3, plus Nintendo is going to have more units than expected for the American release for the GCN that has been in its final design since about April, so I doubt the XB release will get pulled back. Why not just release the games before the console like with the PS2? That way, the games are available for launch, no matter what day its on.[Edited last by Morgan Jolley on August 03, 2001 at 01:35 PM]

I think that MS will push whatever they have into the market early. Bill Gates is a cutthroat, so Nintendo has better be prepared for a war.
Morgan, why in the heck would Microsoft NOT put the box out a week early?
If they're production runs can crank out 10,000 units a week (you can use any number you like as this is just an example) then why would they hold back on the launch and risk a serious threat from nintendo simply to be able to ship 1,000,000 units into retail when they could launch a week early and stil ship 990,000 units into retail and steal nintendo's thunder?
A lot of people are up in the air as to which way they will go with a purchace (X-Box or Gamecube?) and whichever one hits the market first and is up on retail shelves "NOW" will decide which system a lot of those people will buy.
A week is not a very long time to bump up a system launch of this magnitude, and given the circumstances of this launch and the compitition with Nintendo there is really no way that MS can afford not to release the box a week early.
Don't be surprised in Nintendo attempts to counter this move, and then don't be surprised if the X-Box STILL gets out ahead of the cube. I am pretty sure that niether one will street on the scheduled date. This is probably why you don't see a flood of release date advertising a-la Sega's 9-9-99 campaign. Sure there have been postings about release dates on the web and in retail outlets ...but nothing like the Dreamcast ad Blitz for 9-9-99. MS no doubt feels that getting to market first regardless of date is more important.
All of the talk about the X-Box not being 'finished' may be just smoke and mirrors to lull the competition. Bill Gates knows what he is doing. He may not be a visionary genius, but if there one thing he IS an expert at, it's STEALING the competition's thunder.[Edited last by Sean Oneil on August 03, 2001 at 03:15 PM]

Nintendo isn't going to change their date no matter what. It's firm from what I hear. They don't really care when X-box launches. I would be shocked if Gates can get the box out early. The majority of his products ship late. And then only later get patched once or twice so that they become useful.
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Camp, I agree completely. I believe that no one manufacturer will stick to a strict 'street date' in this case, and both MS and the 'N' will start pushing they're systems into retail as soon as possible close to the actual scheduled launch dates. Either way, the customers win. The sooner the systems hit, the better (as long as they are truly ready for market)

I don't know about this. Remember a few years back when Sega pushed up the Saturn launch? All they did was piss of retailers and confuse consumers. I.E. it backfired. If in fact MS launches X-Box a week or so early, it may not be so bad for retailers/consumers. Of course, the Saturn was a couple months early. But even with the early launch, Sony did NOT lose any of their "thunder." The PSX still sold like hotcakes on its release. (I picked up my PSX on day one.)
We shall see...
Jason

Jason-
Proud Recipient of the C. Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence

Yes, but the PSX did not have any 'thunder' to steal. It was a total unknown, and shocked the gaming world by becoming the #1 system. It was quite simply -a better system than the Saturn. That is why it came out on top. Now, if the Saturn had been a more powerful system AND had Final Fantasy, things would have been much different.
So they went back to the drawing board and released the Dreamcast, which IMHO is still the best system available today for a number of reasons. But Sega and the market had ditched it.
This proves once again the golden rule of videogame systems. He who has the Final Fantasy will dominate the market. Are you listening Bill Gates? Pay Squaresoft ANYTHING to get FF X on your system, and then every other FF game exclusively on the X-Box. If you do that, it's in the bag ...including Japan. Forget about the $500 mill in ads. Just give it to Square.

Actually, MS might be making it so that the lowest price of a game at its release is $35 (like the MSRP). Sony made it so that PSX games could be released at whatever price the publisher wanted (near the end of the PSX's life span, I think it was around a year and a half ago), and I think the rule for PS2 games is $50. I'm not sure on any of this, but it is what I heard.
MS should want FFX on the X-Box, but the thing is, people already have PS2s and it takes some time to bring the game to the X-Box. The game sold 1.9 million copies in a day in Japan for the PS2. Why would Square want to put it on the X-Box if it will do fine on the PS2? The game made more money in a week than Jurassic Park 3 did in a week (JP3 had around $100 million in its first week, FFX made well over that--the game sold over 2.4 million copies in a week at around $75). I think the amount of money made on FFX could pay for the production costs of all the FF games ever made.

The prevailing theory/rumor is that FFXI, because it's an online multiplayer game, will appear on multiple consoles, which would likely mean only Xbox and PS2, unless Nintendo's attitude towards Square has changed. It is known that MS has been negotiating with Square for over a year now, and that the main point of contention appears to be online presentation of the game. Square has their own online service, called Playonline I think, and MS is building their own service in Japan, so I can understand why this might be an issue. However, Square may opt to do an Xbox game unrelated to FF, or maybe a version of FF that won't appear on PS2.

FFXI is planned for PC and PS2, plus a GC or XB version may pop up in the future. I doubt FFX or FFXII will end up on XB or GC or PC. I heard a rumor that 12 would be the last FF, but I seriously doubt that. I could see Kingdom Hearts end up on the GC or XB, but the FF series will probably be mostly PS2 exclusive. A lot of people want Square to release FF1-3 (1, 2j, 3j) in America for GameBoy Advance. I heard Square was considering FF4-6 on GBA, but Nintendo hates them so I doubt it. I hope Square will remake all of the games up through 9 for PS2 or something. I think they should make a series of 3 titles that has 3 games in each called Final Fantasy Generations or something like that. The NES games on a DVD would be FFG1, the SNES games on a DVD would be FFG2, and the PSX games on a DVD would be FFG3. We already know 7-9 will be on PS2, maybe they will release the entire series in America on PS2.

The Saturn launch was changed by a very long time margin. A week difference is not going to have the same effect.

It wasn't the early release that pissed off retailers. It was the lack of units certain retailers got. Only the biggest of chains received Saturns for the first several months (TRU, Target, Walmart). Even those who got it had to rush to allocate purchasing funds and shelf space (retailers like to plan ahead for these things). I agree that an early Xbox release has nothing in common with the Saturn debacle.
Sega's slow death began the day they announced the early release at E3.

I didn't mean to imply that this was IDENTICAL to the Saturn release. I know that Sega pissed off retailers, because they didn't give allocate an equal amount of units to ALL retailers. So the smaller stores were irate. It's too early to see if MS will follow a similar path, or become the first company to FLAWLESSLY launch a new system.
Jason

Jason-
Proud Recipient of the C. Montgomery Burns Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence